Fossil by fossil, scientists over the last 40 years have suspected that their models for the more immediate human family tree -- the single trunk, straight as a Ponderosa pine, up from Homo habilis to Homo erectus to Homo sapiens -- were oversimplified. The day for that serious revision may be at hand.

The discovery of three new fossil specimens, announced Wednesday, is the most compelling evidence yet for multiple lines of evolution in our own genus, Homo, scientists said. The fossils showed that there were at least two contemporary Homo species, in addition to Homo erectus, living in East Africa as early as 2 million years ago...

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"as [you've] informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied preeminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason. It is not in this view surprising that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination instead of enlightening your understanding." - Mary Wollstonecraft

"For, by its immensity, the divine substance surpasses every form that our intellect reaches. Thus we are unable to apprehend it by knowing what it is. Yet we are able to have some knowledge of it by knowing what it is not." - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, I, 14.

If you will, you can become all flame.Extra caritatem nulla salus.In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness". सर्वभूतहितἌνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas GandhiY dduw bo'r diolch.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Neanderthals were still alive? I find it rather boring and depressive considering that homo sapiens are the only surviving species of hominids on Earth right now.

we have some dna...possibly a jurassic park experiment?

Chances are it would probably die though within the first three years of its life even if we did manage to successfully clone one. Cloning modern creatures is hard enough as it is with our current technology, as most of them suffer from many genetic problems and end up dying within a couple years. Imagine the challenge in trying to clone a prehistoric creature with a miniscule amount of DNA and think of how hard it would be. I think that the Neanderthal--if successfully cloned--would end up dying in early childhood.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Neanderthals were still alive? I find it rather boring and depressive considering that homo sapiens are the only surviving species of hominids on Earth right now.

we have some dna...possibly a jurassic park experiment?

Chances are it would probably die though within the first three years of its life even if we did manage to successfully clone one. Cloning modern creatures is hard enough as it is with our current technology, as most of them suffer from many genetic problems and end up dying within a couple years. Imagine the challenge in trying to clone a prehistoric creature with a miniscule amount of DNA and think of how hard it would be. I think that the Neanderthal--if successfully cloned--would end up dying in early childhood.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 13, 2012) — New research raises questions about the theory that modern humans and Neanderthals at some point interbred, known as hybridisation. The findings of a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge suggest that common ancestry, not hybridisation, better explains the average 1-4 per cent DNA that those of European and Asian descent (Eurasians) share with Neanderthals.....Neanderthals and modern humans once shared a common ancestor who is thought to have spanned Africa and Europe about half a million years ago. Just as there are very different populations across Europe today, populations of that common ancestor would not have been completely mixed across continents, but rather closer populations would have been more genetically similar to each other than populations further apart. (There is extensive genetic and archaeological evidence that population in Africa were 'structured'; in other words, different populations in Africa only had limited exchange through migration, allowing them to remain distinct from each other both in terms of genetics and morphology.)

Then, about 350-300 thousand years ago, the European range and the African range became separated. The European range evolved into Neanderthal, the African range eventually turned into modern humans. However, because the populations within each continent were not freely mixing, the DNA of the modern human population in Africa that were ancestrally closer to Europe would have retained more of the ancestral DNA (specifically, genetic variants) that is also shared with Neanderthals.

Ain't science grand?

« Last Edit: August 16, 2012, 09:03:44 AM by Jetavan »

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If you will, you can become all flame.Extra caritatem nulla salus.In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness". सर्वभूतहितἌνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas GandhiY dduw bo'r diolch.